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A document published by the Public Relations Society of America, discovered by DeSmog, reveals that from the onset of its public relations campaign, the oil industry courted mainstream media reporters to help it sell the idea of lifting the ban on crude oil exports to the American public and policymakers.

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According to the document, submitted to PRSA to detail the logistics and reach of the PR effort, it was “designed to influence public policy and/or affect legislation, regulations, political activities or candidacies — at the local, state or federal government levels.”

And it all began with a kick-off dinner in Washington, D.C., hosted by Continental Resources and attended by some of the most influential mainstream media energy reporters in the United States.

Regular readers of the Washington oil and gas industry beat will find the names of the dinner attendees, disclosed in the document, familiar.

Harder ended up publishing two exportsarticles favorable to the industry’s point of view in the few months after being invited to the exclusive Hay-Adams Hotel dinner.

Asked for more details about the dinner, Harder told DeSmog via email that she did not “feel comfortable sharing with you any more information about the dinner,” also denying her attendance there shaped the slant of her articles.

One of Harder’s articles published in January 2014 offers more dinner details, noting it “was or­gan­ized by the Do­mest­ic En­ergy Pro­du­cers Al­li­ance” (DEPA) and attended by “oth­er do­mest­ic-en­ergy ex­ec­ut­ives” beyond just Hamm.

DEPA has spent $75,000 lobbying for Congress to lift the oil exports ban in 2015, according to lobbying disclosure forms reviewed by DeSmog.

The DEPA coalition has also given U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) $10,000 in campaignmoney since the 2014 electoral cycle, the first campaign cycle of her first term that began in January 2013. Heitkamp has positioned herself as among the most outspoken members of Congress in support of lifting the ban.

DEPA has also utilized the “miracle” language in its advocacymaterials associated with the push to lift the oil exports ban.

Months after the dinner, Hamm testified at a hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, calling for an end to the oil exports ban. Metadata from that testimony reviewed by DeSmog shows his speech was written by the then-director of public relations for Continental, Mary Ann Osko.

According to a story published by Bloomberg, Hamm “visited Capitol Hill almost weekly and testified at some of the at least nine congressional hearings on exports.”

Rebranding Fracking: “Horizontal Drilling”

Continental also made a concerted effort to pivot away from using the term “fracking,” opting instead to use term “horizontal drilling” to describe the hydraulic fracturing technique.

“The PR team’s objectives to showcase the benefits of America’s oil and natural gas renaissance, change the vernacular from fracking to horizontal drilling, and launch crude oil exports to the top of the U.S. policy agenda were all achieved,” explained Continental in the document (emphasis added).

Continental’s diction choice has a basis in the scholarly literature on the topic.

A July 2013 survey-based study by Louisiana State University (LSU) Public Policy Research Lab professors concluded that “the unpleasant sound of the word ‘Fracking’ might be partially responsible for view of the safety of the process” and that those “who did not hear the word…are more likely to say they think the process is safe.”

An earlier study done by the PR firm Gregory FCA came to similar conclusions.

“The very term ‘fracking’ has a negative connotation…The industry needs to identify negatively charged words and replace them with positive language,” reads a February 2011 Gregory FCAblog post. “The industry needs to control the story by controlling the lexicon through creative, positive words that tell a vivid story and lock out the language of critics.”

Hamm used the term “horizontal drilling” five times during his January 2014 congressional testimony and an additional four times in a Forbes opinion piece Hamm published advocating for a lift of the U.S. oil exports ban.

Continental Responds

But when asked by DeSmog if Continental believed climate change was an issue, Kristin Thomas, vice president of public relations for Continental, said the company “doesn’t take an official position on the issue.”

Instead, Thomas pointed to Continental’s corporate responsibility report, which does not mention climate change or global warming. Climate change impacts of lifting the export ban, unsurprisingly, did not make it into Continental’s PR narrative pitch to reporters.

Thomas also denied that the PR campaign was, at its core, geared toward gaining Continental and the oil industry favorable publicity.

“This is not about seeking press coverage to portray someone in a positive light,” she said in an email. “This is a topic that was and is very important.”

“And apparently U.S. policymakers are incapable of or disinterested in distinguishing between PR propaganda and scientific and economic evidence. This type of travesty highlights how critical to democracy it is that more people tune into independent, non-corporate-run news sources.”

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Steve Horn is a Madison, WI-based Research Fellow for DeSmogBlog and a freelance investigative journalist. He previously was a reporter and researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy. In his free time, Steve is a competitive runner, with a personal best time of 2:43:04 in the 2009 Boston Marathon. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in political science and legal studies, his writing has appeared in Al Jazeera America, The Guardian, Vice News, The Nation, Wisconsin Watch, Truth-Out, AlterNet and elsewhere.

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